Comparison of Different Production Systems Approaches of a Manufacturing Line in the Aeronautical Sector

In the recent years, flexibility has become more important within our industrial systems. This yields to more complex decision making during this industrial system’s design. In this work, we present a method to support this decision making by presenting a set of indicators that enable the quantitative comparison of a set of industrial system designs for a pulse line, based on the number of stations selected. To achieve this, two well-known problems in process optimization have been utilized jointly: the Simple Assembly Line Balancing Problem and the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem. A preliminary study was conducted on an exemplary production line from the aeronautical industry. Subsequently, we progressed to develop valuable insights encompassing both problems. To achieve this, two metrics were introduced: lead time and the number of hours worked. These metrics facilitated the generation of data illustrating how the number of hours worked varies with cycle time, lead time, and the number of stations. The outcome is a set of indicators and graphs that provides more precise and well-founded information, helping in the decision making of which approach is more suitable based on the specific needs and constraints of each project.